This week Gov. Paul LePage hand-picked the seventh and latest person to head the Department of Education on his watch, using legislative loopholes to bypass the traditional nomination process to ensure his top choice – William Beardsley – could remain in charge, even without the formal title.

But education leaders and lawmakers say they want a permanent commissioner. The department hasn’t had one since 2014, when Jim Rier left for health reasons.

“It’s been my position that there needs to be a confirmed commissioner at the helm,” said Republican Sen. Brian Langley, chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee. “Stability in the department is really critical for the department to function effectively.”

It’s been more than a year since LePage first tapped Beardsley, the former president of Husson University, to lead the department.

At the time, LePage used a legislative loophole to do it: Beardsley was hired for one day as director of special projects. Under state law, that one day of employment qualified him to be acting commissioner, because the commissioner must be chosen from department staff.

LePage started the nomination process a few months later, but withdrew it after Democrats indicated they might vote to block Beardsley’s appointment.

Critics raised concerns about Beardsley, based on previous comments he made about Maine’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender, and on how he handled a case involving Bob Carlson, a former chaplain at Husson University who committed suicide after learning that state police were investigating allegations that Carlson sexually abused several children over 40 years.

There was an outcry at first when LePage vowed to take over some responsibilities of the state education commissioner himself rather than subject Beardsley to what LePage called “silly, foolish political-rhetoric games.”

Since then, the governor has used other legislative loopholes to keep Beardsley in place, including signing a special financial order to allow him to perform certain duties of the commissioner – without actually being commissioner.

NO PERMANENT COMMISSIONER

LePage’s first commissioner of education, Stephen Bowen, stepped down in August 2013. Rier won unanimous support from the Legislature’s Education Committee to succeed Bowen, but he stepped down less than a year later for medical reasons. Rachelle Tome, the department’s head of federal programs, stepped in on an interim basis before Tom Desjardin was named acting commissioner in April 2015. He was injured in an accident and replaced by Beardsley last October.

After the nomination dispute, LePage appointed Debra Plowman acting commissioner, who in turn named Beardsley deputy commissioner.

Her six-month stint ended this week. On Monday, LePage appointed veteran educator Robert Hasson to be acting commissioner, and said Beardsley will continue serving as deputy commissioner.

The arrangement lets Beardsley effectively lead the department even though he is serving at the pleasure of the acting commissioners, who serve six-month terms. His appointment ends when theirs does.

LePage’s office did not return calls for comment this week, but at a Bangor town hall meeting last summer, LePage said he intended to keep appointing temporary acting commissioners every six months, and that person would delegate his or her authority to Beardsley.

Even as deputy commissioner, Beardsley still has all the powers of a permanent commissioner.

Educators and lawmakers have praised the selection of Hasson, a longtime educator and former superintendent of SAD 51 in Cumberland and North Yarmouth. Before joining the Department of Education, he was deputy executive director of the Maine School Management Association and executive director of the Maine School Superintendents Association.

‘A COMPLETE END-AROUND’

But lawmakers aren’t satisfied with the continuing temporary arrangement.

Sen. Langley said he thinks Hasson “is a great guy” and will help bring stability to the department, but the move falls short of a permanent commissioner.

“I think things happen in steps. I think this is a step in the right direction,” Langley said.

State Rep. Victoria Kornfield, D-Bangor, co-chair of the Education Committee, has called the governor’s moves “a complete end-around of the Legislature and the citizens of Maine.”

Over the summer, both the Maine School Superintendents Association and the Maine School Boards Association called on the governor to nominate a permanent commissioner. The state teachers union, the Maine Education Association, has also said there should be a permanent commissioner, but acknowledged this week that the lack of a commissioner hasn’t actually hurt schools.

“Maine’s public schools continue to function even as the commissioner’s seat is rotated in and out every few months, proving Maine’s public school students and educators can do just fine without a permanent statewide leader,” said MEA President Lois Kilby-Chesley. “Having someone in the office to do the necessary budgeting, paperwork and other required tasks doesn’t often funnel down to the reality of teaching and learning in the classroom.”

In a letter to LePage, officials at the superintendents association said “the uncertainty around that (commissioner) position has … been an ongoing problem since the end of 2014, and our concern is it will continue for the remaining 2½ years of your second term.” A resolution by the school boards association echoed that sentiment.

Langley said there is less pressure now to appoint a permanent commissioner because LePage is wrapping up his final term.

“It’s the very tail end of this administration. That makes a world of difference,” he said. “If we were in the first two years of an administration, there would be a lot more pressure to come to bear to make this a permanent appointment. On the practical side … someone would be coming in as commissioner knowing it’s a very short job.”